Field
The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and more specifically, to a method and system for generating a user-targeting alert notification objects based on an existing communication message.
Related Art
In a group-chat scenario involving multiple users, a typical user may receive all communication messages sent by other users in a group conversation. In some cases, a particular communication message may not have a clear target user, or may not be noticed by its intended reader. As a result, some messages may be neglected by users to whom the messages are of interest, or who are expected to pay attention by a sender.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary group chat window 100 with a conversation message indicating a target user in a designated format. As shown, a group “Hard working group” 102 is used as an example, and may include multiple users. That is, besides a user Norton and his associate Ralph, with whom Norton actually wants to have a conversation, the group may include other members, such as their colleague Alice. As shown, Norton initially sends a communication message 104 intended for Ralph, with the content “Ralph, let's have lunch.”
Despite Norton's intention, actual cases in common practice may include: 1) Ralph believes that the message is casual chatter among group members, and does not necessarily interest or involve Ralph. Thus, Ralph does not pay attention to the group chat message. 2) Ralph feels there are excessive messages in the group, which interfere with his normal work and learning. Ralph therefore blocks the “Hard working group” altogether, and so cannot normally view a corresponding group chat message. Although Norton addresses Ralph by adding his name to the content of the communication message, unless Ralph carefully reads the message, he will not be sure that he is an intended target user of the message. This may generate misunderstanding, as the message is not effectively conveyed.
Therefore, some systems provide a solution specifically in a group chat scenario. As shown in FIG. 1, the content of Norton's last sent message 106 is, “@RalphC, let's have lunch.” Here the text “@RalphC” is information indicating a target user in a designated format, which enables an electronic device to recognize that Ralph (whose username is RalphC) is a target user for the communication message. Thus, the electronic device may send a personal message to Ralph, thereby ameliorating Ralph's blocking or ignoring of “Hard working group.”
Apart from this solution in a group chat situation, some systems can generate “forced reminders,” i.e., user-targeting alert notifications (also referred to as “Ding” messages) and send them to users, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/040,659, hereby incorporated by reference in the present application. A “Ding” message can include text, emoji or other icon, audio, and video messages. The messaging system can also provide a user interface to allow the user to configure the way the “Ding” message is sent.